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Aruba Airwave vs Cisco DNA Center comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco are both solutions in the Network Management Applications category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2, while Cisco is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.0. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 5.9% mindshare in NMA, compared to Cisco’s 24.0% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Cisco users who would recommend it.
Aruba Airwave
Read 25 Aruba Airwave reviews
  • 1,457 Views
  • 1,384 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
Cisco DNA Center
Read 42 Cisco DNA Center reviews
  • 9,196 Views
  • 5,150 Comparison Views
89% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Aruba Airwave and Cisco DNA Center compete in the network management and automation category. Cisco DNA Center appears to have the upper hand due to its advanced network automation, security integration, and comprehensive centralized management capabilities.

Features: Aruba Airwave supports multi-vendor environments and offers robust monitoring capabilities, allowing visibility and troubleshooting across networks. Its zero-touch provisioning is valuable for quick setup without manual interference. Visual RF provides visual location analytics for efficient troubleshooting. Cisco DNA Center provides extensive network automation and analytics, allowing centralized management, security integration, and effective deployment of configurations to minimize errors. It excels with its AI-driven analytics, making it user-friendly and insightful for network engineers.

Room for Improvement: Users of Aruba Airwave suggest improvements in integration with other systems and an easier error notification process. The UI synchronization between CLI and GUI also needs enhancement. Cisco DNA Center feedback indicates the need for better third-party product integration and enriched reporting features. Its complex licensing structure and high pricing remain areas for dissatisfaction.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both Aruba Airwave and Cisco DNA Center primarily offer on-premises deployment. Cisco also supports hybrid and private cloud setups. Cisco's customer support is often preferred for its faster response times and thorough escalation process, especially for complicated technical issues, although both solutions are rated highly by users.

Pricing and ROI: Aruba Airwave is viewed as more cost-effective with per-device licensing, providing substantial ROI by increasing productivity and cutting troubleshooting time. Cisco DNA Center, despite its comprehensive features, carries a higher price, which can be prohibitive for medium-sized businesses. The licensing is complex, but the investment can be justified by the extensive network insights and management capabilities it offers.

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Buyer's Guide
Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco DNA Center
July 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.5
Aruba Airwave enhances efficiency, decreases costs and downtime, but requires three years to realize full return on investment.
Sentiment score
6.5
Cisco DNA Center enhances efficiency by reducing configuration time, despite licensing costs, with positive but varied ROI evaluations.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report
Although Cisco DNA Center is expensive, we have seen a return on investment in terms of time savings.
For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco DNA Center report
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Aruba Airwave customer service is responsive and helpful, with language support praised, despite some integration and escalation concerns.
Sentiment score
6.2
Cisco's DNA Center support is praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow responses and challenges with complex issues.
I would rate their technical support as a nine or ten, as it's quite good.
Angie was very kind and communicated well in both Spanish and English, making it pleasant to connect with her.
For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report
Overall, Cisco DNA Center rates eight out of ten as a complete solution.
For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco DNA Center report
EZ
reviewer1877184 - PeerSpot reviewerAhmed Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Aruba Airwave excels in scalability for large enterprises, with flexible licensing and tool integration, though resource needs vary.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco DNA Center is highly scalable, effectively supports small to large networks, but licensing costs can be high.
Aruba Airwave is fully scalable, as we have a large number of tenants using the network with approximately six thousand end users.
Aruba Airwave gives good information about SNR value, signal value, and you can get extensive information.
For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report
The solution is designed for large enterprise companies.
For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco DNA Center report
reviewer1854369 - PeerSpot reviewerAhmet Bulbul - PeerSpot reviewerAhmed Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Aruba Airwave is highly stable, user-friendly, with minimal issues, though crowded spaces occasionally cause performance problems.
Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco DNA Center is generally stable, with some users reporting occasional bugs and needed updates affecting stability.
I have found Aruba Airwave to be stable.
For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco DNA Center report
 

Room For Improvement

Aruba Airwave users seek improved GUI stability, integration, compatibility, and scalability with simplified configurations and reduced licensing costs.
Cisco DNA Center needs better integration, user-friendliness, and support, with pricing, scalability, and compatibility issues impacting its effectiveness.
I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive.
The end-to-end users' messages show some details that are not always up-to-date, and sometimes the information from the GUI is not exactly aligned with what's on the website.
When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers.
For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report
The AI-driven insights have contributed significantly to faster troubleshooting and predictive analytics.
For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco DNA Center report
Ahmet Bulbul - PeerSpot reviewer
EZ
reviewer1877184 - PeerSpot reviewerAhmed Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Setup Cost

Aruba Airwave pricing receives mixed feedback, with some valuing flexibility and others finding it costly depending on various factors.
Cisco DNA Center is costly, justified for enterprises, challenging for mid-market, with SaaS and promotions occasionally aiding affordability.
The pricing for Aruba Airwave is acceptable because compared to Cisco, it's slightly cheaper, but not significantly - maybe 5% or 7% less expensive.
For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco DNA Center report
 

Valuable Features

Aruba Airwave enhances network management with real-time monitoring, multivendor compatibility, comprehensive reporting, and robust troubleshooting and orchestration features.
Cisco DNA Center provides centralized management, security, AI-driven insights, and automation, enhancing network control and operational efficiency.
Aruba Airwave provides good visibility, offering extensive data on network dynamics, such as access point connections, usage, signal strengths, and potential interference from neighboring Wi-Fi networks.
It provides near real-time monitoring using AIMON and AURO protocols, which is robust with multiple models and brand support.
The feature that proved most beneficial for our organization's network monitoring is the virtual four, which we use frequently when working with Aruba.
For more quotes and insights, download the Aruba Airwave report
The most valuable features include AI-driven insights which make troubleshooting much easier.
For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco DNA Center report
reviewer1854369 - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer1877184 - PeerSpot reviewer
EZ
Ahmed Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Airwave
Ranking in Network Management Applications
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco DNA Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (12th), Network Automation (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Aruba Airwave is 5.9%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 24.0%, down from 29.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmet Bulbul - PeerSpot reviewer
Reports generation remains efficient while support and updates require attention
The biggest problem for not using Aruba Airwave extensively now is that HP is not upgrading this tool. They're not investing money and time into it, which is why we're not using it. I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive. Customers start to complain and get annoyed about the license price. For example, when customers have 500 access points and features about access point licenses, moving to Central requires purchasing new licenses. This makes customers annoyed and complaining about this situation. It's hard to move from on-premises to Central because they always compare costs. If Aruba gave free licenses, they could move. But going to cloud and Central means more investment, and their budget doesn't cover the new investment. This creates problems for local partner companies.
Read full review
Ahmed Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience unified visibility and monitoring for enterprise campus and significant time savings and enhanced troubleshooting with reliable support
We have been working with Cisco DNA Center for ten years. Our clients use Cisco DNA Center for unified visibility/monitoring across Enterprise Campus both LAN & WLAN along with Access and fast technical issues troubleshooting The solution provides fast troubleshooting capabilities and fast…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Airwave?
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Airwave?
The pricing for Aruba Airwave is acceptable because compared to Cisco, it's slightly cheaper, but not significantly - maybe 5% or 7% less expensive.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?
My general opinion on Aruba Airwave is that it's acceptable, but it's not ideal because we are accustomed to Cisco. We didn't use Aruba much, but once you set it up, you probably don't need to worr...
See all answers
What do you like most about Cisco DNA Center?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it gives some kind of ease in operations, especially since our company is moving from CLI to GUI-based configuration.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco DNA Center?
After evaluating other solutions, we will provide feedback.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
We have utilized the software-defined access (SDA) feature of Cisco DNA Center. The AI-driven needs enhancements and Integration and unification of visibility and monitoring to include other areas ...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 11% of the time
Cisco Catalyst Center vs Aruba Airwave Logo
Cisco Catalyst Center vs Aruba Airwave
Compared 9% of the time
Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista vs Aruba Airwave Logo
Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista vs Aruba Airwave
Compared 9% of the time
SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper vs Aruba Airwave Logo
SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper vs Aruba Airwave
Compared 8% of the time
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Cisco Catalyst Center vs Cisco DNA Center Logo
Cisco Catalyst Center vs Cisco DNA Center
Compared 13% of the time
Juniper Mist Wired Assurance vs Cisco DNA Center Logo
Juniper Mist Wired Assurance vs Cisco DNA Center
Compared 7% of the time
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Cisco DNA Center Logo
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Cisco DNA Center
Compared 6% of the time
Fortinet FortiManager vs Cisco DNA Center Logo
Fortinet FortiManager vs Cisco DNA Center
Compared 6% of the time
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Cisco DNA Center Logo
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Cisco DNA Center
Compared 4% of the time
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Aruba Airwave
July 2025
Aruba Airwave reportDownload Aruba Airwave product report
Buyer's Guide
Cisco DNA Center
July 2025
Cisco DNA Center reportDownload Cisco DNA Center product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
DNA Center
 

Overview

Offering granular visibility into wired and wireless networks, AirWave is the only management platform designed with mobile devices and apps in mind. By proactively monitoring the health and performance of all things connected, AirWave lets IT gain the insights they need to support the digital workplace.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Cisco DNA Center offers a comprehensive platform for network automation and management, providing detailed analytics, enhanced security, and streamlined operations for both wired and wireless networks.

Cisco DNA Center integrates with Cisco infrastructure to deliver efficient network automation and management, helping organizations improve network visibility, security, and control. It supports AI-driven analytics and automated workflows to enhance operational efficiency and reduce errors. Challenges include compatibility with third-party systems, steep learning curve, and complex deployment. Its interface facilitates centralized control, vital for troubleshooting, policy management, and configuration management, with support for zero-touch provisioning and SD-Access.

What are the key features of Cisco DNA Center?
  • Robust Analytics: Provides detailed insights into network health with AI-driven analytics.
  • Centralized Security: Integrates with ISE for comprehensive security management.
  • Automated Device Management: Simplifies device provisioning and configuration transfers.
  • Wi-Fi Analytics: Offers deep insights into wireless network performance.
  • Zero-Touch Provisioning: Streamlines new device deployments with minimal human intervention.
  • Scalable Segmentation: Efficiently segments network traffic ensuring security and performance.
What benefits should users consider?
  • Operational Efficiency: Automation reduces potential errors and streamlines workflow.
  • Enhanced Security: Integration with Cisco ISE bolsters security capabilities.
  • Network Visibility: Comprehensive dashboards and analysis tools enhance monitoring.
  • Troubleshooting: Real-time monitoring aids in identifying and resolving issues swiftly.

In sectors such as healthcare, finance, and retail, Cisco DNA Center is utilized for its ability to enhance security and compliance, manage large-scale networks, and provide detailed analytics for better operational decision-making. Its support for location tracking and policy automation ensures efficient network management across diverse environments.

Cisco
 

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
Information Not Available
Buyer's Guide
Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco DNA Center
July 2025
Free Report: Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco DNA Center
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